We have a rare opportunity for a Photographer/Videographer  to join our team in Nottingham, commencing Spring 2010.

 You will have a proven track record as an accomplished newspaper/feature photographer,  with experience of working on corporate and PR accounts as well.

 In addition you will have experience of producing VNR’s and other video content suitable for editorial, PR and corporate use. (Preference will be given to individuals who have completed formal training in this role, and have experience in post production and editing.)

 Our standards are high, and you should be comfortable with off camera location lighting,  and be keen to move your skills to a higher level still.

 You should be familiar with software such as Photoshop, Fotostation, FTP, and Adobe Premier.

 You will need to be able to provide your own modern Canon equipment, which will include gear that fits our standard specifications. 

 We provide a tight family team who work to high technical and ethical standards. 

 A company car and credit card are included, as well as up to 5 weeks holiday per annum,  and a tax free equipment allowance.

 A clean drivers licence and the ability to pass a full CRB check are requirements, as well as the need to reside in Nottingham.

 As with most agency photographic jobs, you will be expected to travel throughout the UK and Europe,  and may be expected to work unsociable hours.

 Applications with CV, and portfolio strictly in writing to;

Vacancy

Page One Photography Ltd

11 West Avenue

West Bridgford

Nottingham

NG2 7NL

Or by email to;

vacancy@pageonephotography.com

Please note not all application will be replied to.

A trial period may also be required.

Chris Broad at home with his wife Miche.

It was a pleasure last week to meet the former Notts and England cricketer Chris Broad.   He had been trapped in a mini bus in Harare during the recent terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team,  and had been lucky to escape with his life.

I had been asked to do some portraits of him and his wife Miche at their home in Nottingham for the Sunday Times, who ran a piece in last weeks paper about this experience.

A very specific brief had been provided by Ray Wells,  the picture editor of the ST,  which I hope that I was able to fulfill…..  but as usual my favorite picture happened by accident, when his dog Meg came into the room. 

The resultant picture I think summed up nicely the undoubted relief and welcome that must have greeted Chris on his return.

They say you should never work with small children or animals,  but not this time!

PS;  To all the media out there…  Its Miche… not Michelle!

One of the little secrets that we have had at Page One is our weddings…… 

For quite a few years we have been doing the occasional wedding,  but we never in the past promoted this service. 

We have now brought our weddings out of the closet.  Our simple rate structure means that the customer can have excellent photography,  at a great value price, and not have to worry about all those little extras that seem to add so much to the bill.

We have based our pricing on our commercial rates,  so the customer does not pay any extra because of the “W” word,  which seems to have a multiplier effect on so many service in the wedding industry.

You can see our dedicated web site at www.pageoneweddings.co.uk which has our current wedding portfolio available to view.

If you are planning a wedding,  and want to have a chat, then drop us a email on info@pageoneweddings.co.uk,  or call us on our regular number 0115 981 8880.

We won’t be bringing in any extra resources for our weddings,  so that means that the same photographer who works for E.on or the Sunday Times,  will be the one who shoots your wedding.   It also means that we are only going to have a limited number of slots available!

So if you are more concerned with the photography than the frippery,  get in touch!

Over the past year the nature of news photography in the UK has changed dramatically,  and not for the better.

In the past,  major breaking stories were covered by a mix of local agency photographers,  the PA,  and maybe a few staff guys,  if the story was big enough.   The nationals tended to order material from the locals, whose local nature tended to ensure that they were first on scene,  and many times broke the story in the first place. 

However, time moves on,  and budgets are cut,   and the PA and the BBC have become the dominant source of news for the nationals,  which has steadily eroded the income base of the local agencies. 

Recently,  this has been made much worse by the spread of a new business model.   The new model involves estabilishing a net of young keen photographers or journalists across the UK,  and then when a national story breaks,  parachuting in their peeps,  and sweeping up as many of the papers as possible.

Now,  nothing wrong with this on the face,  but the killer is,  the people they send in either are “Interns”,  or “Freelances” or on “Contract”.  Now the term is not really important, because the end result is the same.  The young photographer is NOT a employee   They are promised that if they work hard,  and get lots of hits,  this will somehow get them a “Foot on the Ladder”. 

What they are not told,  is that the ladder actually just leads to a precipice.  When they get a bit further up,  they fall off the other side,  and are simply replaced by another young photographer at the bottom.

Better still,  from the perspective of the agency,  because these people are not properly employed,  the cost of the photographer or journalist is virtually nil…  if they dont get a result, it costs the agency nothing.  

Lets make no mistake,  these work practices ensure that young photographers are working to almost dickensian terms,  the money will work out at less than minimum wage,  they have no protection for redundancy or sickness,  and they have to bear all the long term risks and costs associated with being a photographer.   

Its pure exploitation,  and it means that the small pie that was providing a income for many agencies,  which ensured proper jobs for young photographers,  were they could learn and progress in a protected enviroment,  has now been sliced so thin,  it is impossible to do the work profitably.

If you are unwilling to use illegal work practices to exploit young people, there simply is not the ability to earn enough money to make this sort of work viable.    And dont think that these new agency practices will be successful either..    These agencies have no way of maintiaining or promoting quality,  they will suffer a high level of employee disloyalty,  which will lead to the agency losing contributors and income strands,  and in the end these models will fail as well.  But the cost of these experiments will be the demise of the local agency photographer,  and the training and opportunity that these companies have provided to young photographers for many years.

What is especially disconcerting is that the national newspapers are keen to exploit this model.   One picture editor has been quoted on one of these new model agencies website heaping praise…  But he must also surely know that the young people who are being encouraged to work hard, take risks,  spend money on cars, fuel , and gear,  are probably going to be effectivley working for less than minimum wage. 

One agency has in the past activley encouraged its staff to collude with it to defraud the Revenue,  by only paying Overtime if the Intern/journalists,  presented reciepts to the value of the shift…. ergo reciepts which could be put through as expenses,  and not attracting NI contributions.

If Marks and Spencer sourced their pants from companies in Bangladash which behaved this way,  the papers would have a field day,  but they are quite happy to exploit young vulnerable and naive photographers and journalists right here in the UK.

I was gobsmacked to read on Canon’s web-site that the main drivers for the inclusion of video on the 5d mk2,  were Getty and Reuters.

According to the site,  both of these major agencies want to be able to offer more video content,  and are keen to get it from their existing photographers.

When will these people learn?  

There have been many attempts to turn photographers into Photographers/Videographers,  PA tried it a few years ago,  and we had a extensive video production facility at Page One until 2000, so we know all about what is required to produce good video. 

But the simple truth is that the two formats are not the same,  and they require different skills,  and different sensibilities.  

Thinking that we can add Videography to a photographers tasks denigrates the work that the photographer does.  Its a clear indication that in fact the commisioner has no clear understanding of the skills required,  and in fact is not interested in aquiring good photography.

If we as photographers allow ourselves to be turned into a sort of bastard photo/video operatives,  we will further lower the value of the work that we do and destroy the medium.

I find it almost a act of betrayal that Canon,  who should be supporting and encouraging photographers,  should produce such a important pro camera that essentially compromises its usefullness as a photographic tool to add a function which will in no way aid those who want to produce the best photography.

There are some good people out there who are producing both video and still images,  and doing it successfully and well,  but there are probably more people out there who just want to be a great photographer.  In fact the very best photographers have no interest in becoming videographers,  just as the best doctors have no desire to become dentists.

The most amusing thing is that the 5d mk2 is in reality not going to be a usefull camera to Reuters and Getty because it does not preform well enough in terms of AF and Capture rate,  to be a usefull sport or news tool,  so the guys will probably end up carrying their 1 series as well……

Canon added video at the cost of frame rate and improved AF,  to sell maybe 200 cameras to Getty and Reuters.   Bizarre.

This industry is getting it in the neck enough as it is,   we sure don’t need our suppliers colluding with big business to lower the value of what we do even further.